US official signals end to war against Al-Qaeda

The United States must prepare for a time when it no longer is at war with Al-Qaeda and when sweeping legal powers ushered in after the September 11, 2001 attacks come to an end, the Pentagon’s top lawyer said.

The address by Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson marked the first time a senior US official publicly raised the possibility of an end to the so-called “war on terror,” launched by former president George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

With the US military campaign against Al-Qaeda now entering its 12th year, “we must also ask ourselves: how will this conflict end?” Johnson said Thursday in remarks delivered at the Oxford Union in Britain.